SEC issuance of rules for ICOs deferred indefinitely

After revising proposed rules for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) based on inputs received during the first round of public consultation, the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has yet to issue the proposal in its final form citing stakeholders’ request for more time to study the draft as the reason for the delay.

According to The Philippine Star which broke the news in January this year, SEC has deferred the issuance indefinitely which is a complete turnaround after announcing it would do so before the end of 2018.

Security tokens are virtual currency that represent assets. They could be in the form of cash, cryptocurrencies, or any other asset as decided by the developer.

In a press release on January 2, 2019, SEC revealed revisions to the proposal based on collated suggestions received from August to November of last year.

Among the revisions were allowing conditional registration of security tokens by non-resident foreign companies; requiring advisors to have comprehensive knowledge in security tokens projects; requiring submission of more documents including operations manual, KYC/AMLA procedures, disaster recovery plan and risks, and security protocols; and specifying more details regarding escrow relationships.

Instead of finalizing the proposal, however, SEC decided to further extend the draft’s public exposure. It released a notice which, in effect, subjected the proposed rules for ICOs to a second round of public consultation.

SEC reset January 15 as the deadline of public comments. Now way past deadline, still no word from SEC regarding revision updates or final issuance of said rules.